Carnival cancels 12 more sailings to fix ships

Mar. 20, 2013
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The Carnival Triumph is towed into Mobile Bay near Dauphin Island, Ala., on Thursday. The ship with more than 4,200 passengers and crew members has been idled for nearly a week in the Gulf of Mexico following an engine room fire. / Dave Martin AP

by Gene Sloan, USA TODAY

by Gene Sloan, USA TODAY

Industry giant Carnival has canceled a dozen sailings on two ships so it can make changes to the vessels' power and fire suppression systems.

Announced late Tuesday, the changes to the Carnival Triumph and Carnival Sunshine come as the line reviews fire safety systems and engine redundancies across its fleet in the wake of the much publicized February fire aboard the Carnival Triumph. Changes to additional Carnival ships are likely as the review continues, the line suggests.

Both the Carnival Triumph and Carnival Sunshine already are in repair yards undergoing overhauls that are now being extended.

Carnival "is making significant investments to enhance the level of operating redundancies and the scope of hotel services that can run on emergency power, and further improve each ship's fire prevention, detection and suppression systems," the line says in a statement. "Given the necessary lead time to source needed materials and implement the enhancements, Carnival will extend the current out-of-service period for these two ships."

The 2,758-passenger Carnival Triumph already is in the midst of a nine-week overhaul that began after the February fire and resulted in the cancellation of 14 voyages. It will remain out of service an additional seven weeks for the newly announced changes, resulting in the cancellation of 10 additional voyages.

The 3,006-passenger Carnival Sunshine (until recently known as the Carnival Destiny) is in the midst of a long-planned makeover that was scheduled to last seven weeks. It will remain out of service an additional three weeks for the newly announced changes, resulting in the cancellation of two voyages.

The ships now will re-emerge on June 3 and May 5, respectively.

The new cancellations will affect more than 30,000 vacationers. Carnival says customers on the sailings will receive a full refund, reimbursement for non-refundable transportation costs and a 25% discount on a future cruise.

Carnival did not give an estimate of how many more of its 24 ships might require changes to power and fire suppression systems or when such work might take place, but it suggested that the disruption to other ships wouldn't be as great. Carnival announced the fleet-wide review of fire safety and power systems last week.

"Our team of experts has worked virtually around the clock to determine the best set of solutions and rapidly develop an effective implementation plan for both of these ships," CEO Gerry Cahill says. "Moving forward, we will have the ability to source materials and schedule improvements much more expediently, thus minimizing the scheduling impact on other vessels."

The Feb. 10 fire on the Carnival Triumph left the ship dead in the water, exposing a lack of redundancy in its main power system. The ship's emergency backup power system kicked in but was inadequate to provide passengers with basic services including working toilets, elevators, air conditioning and lighting in many areas.

Cahill stressed that Carnival's ships are safe for travel now, even as the review of the line's ships continues.

"All of our vessels have fully effective safety systems, equipment and training in place," Cahill says. "The changes we are implementing are focused primarily on improvements to better support continued power and hotel services should unexpected issues arise. In addition, we are applying new learnings and making enhancements in the area of fire suppression and extinguishing."